Federal prosecutors accused Argentine former president and current vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of operating “the biggest corruption scheme ever known in the country.” They requested she be handed a 12-year prison sentence, reports the Buenos Aires Times. This particular trial—one of over a dozen corruption, bribery, and money laundering-related trials she has faced over the past several years—alleges that the vice president diverted significant public works contracts while in office between 2007 and 2015. These contracts were awarded to businessman and Kirchner family ally Lázaro Báez, whose work on public projects allegedly turned a profit for Kirchner and cost the state billions of pesos, according to Reuters. 

La Nación writes that Kirchner denies the allegations, claiming she is facing a “media-judicial firing squad” and “not a constitutional court,” and President Alberto Fernández (no relation to Fernández de Kirchner) has expressed his support for his vice president via Twitter, claiming that “None of the acts attributed to the former president have been proven.” 

A verdict will likely be handed down before the end of the year, though Kirchner is expected to appeal if the court finds her guilty, which could delay the final sentencing even further. Federal Prosecutor Diego Luciani also requested “special life disqualification” from holding public office for Kirchner, if found guilty. Even if convicted, Kirchner would be allowed to run in the country’s presidential and legislative elections next year under parliamentary immunity laws. As France 24 explains, Kirchner could lose her parliamentary immunity “either by losing her senate seat at the next election, or if the Supreme Court were to ratify an eventual guilty verdict.”

More Argentina

The Fernández government scheduled a tentative joint naval exercise with Russia, among other countries, sparking criticism from opposition lawmakers, according to La Nación. The secretary of international affairs of defense clarified that under the current context of the war in Ukraine, Argentina “has no interest” in carrying out this exercise, which had been planned in August 2021.

Brazil

• Last night, Bolsonaro was interviewed by Jornal Nacional ahead of the October presidential election. Lula, Ciro Gomes, and Simone Tebet will all be interviewed this week, as well. During Bolsonaro’s interview, the president repeated his claims against the electronic voting system and asserted that he would accept the election results so long as they were “clean” and transparent. (Globo)
  
  
• “Brazil’s presidential front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended free elections with alternation of power in Venezuela,” reports Bloomberg.”
  
  
• Bruno Pereira, an indigenous rights advocate murdered alongside journalist Dom Philips in the Amazon earlier this summer, “planned to lead an Indigenous delegation 2,500km across Brazil to learn from veteran fellow defenders.” His colleagues are persevering and pushing on with the exchange, notes The Guardian.

Caribbean

• Caribbean countries are blacklisted by Europe for tax evasion and anti-corruption issues despite Europeans themselves creating the global system of tax havens and financial secrecy, writes Kenneth Mohammed in a The Guardian op-ed.

Chile

• With two weeks left until the plebiscite, Chile is divided over the future of its magna carta, but most agree that either the new constitution or the old one would have to be amended, depending on if “approve” or “reject” wins the vote, reports El País. 

Colombia

• In response to a tweet about Venezuela’s Diosdado Cabello calling for Colombia to extradite Venezuelan opposition members, President Gustavo Petro tweeted, “Colombia guarantees the right to asylum and refuge.” 
  
  
• The US should maintain a close relationship with the Petro administration, as it offers a “chance for a fresh start” with failing policies such as the war on drugs, writes Connor Echols at Responsible Statecraft.

El Salvador

• N1co (pronounced nee-koh) is attempting to enter the Salvadoran market as the first neobank in Central America, seeking to emphasize “simpler offerings, such as payment links that can be sent through the ubiquitous WhatsApp messaging app without having to download a new app or crypto-powered digital wallet,” reports Rest of World.

Mexico

• The primarily indigenous, Maya villagers of Vida y Esperanza fear the “Mayan Train,” one of AMLO’s signature projects, “will pollute the caves that supply them with water, endanger their children and cut off their access to the outside world,” says AP. 
  
  
• AMLO’s proposed energy reforms are causing delays in alternative energy projects, forcing businesses to turn to smaller-scale projects to avoid regulations, reports Reuters. 

Migration

• The Colombian island of San Andrés, off the coast of Nicaragua, is becoming a new route for migrants heading to Central and North America. In the first 2.5 weeks of August, 119 irregular migrants, primarily from Venezuela and Cuba, were detained while attempting to cross into Nicaragua without authorization, reports Radio Nacional de Colombia. 

Nicaragua

• WOLA released a statement denouncing “the intensification of attacks and repression by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against civil society, the church, the press, members of the opposition and dissident voices in Nicaragua.” 
  
  
• The Catholic Church has been quiet about Ortega’s repression thus far, but could be one of the few international actors effectively placed to make a difference, writes James Bosworth at WPR. 

Paraguay

• In the Latin America Risk Report, James Bosworth and Lucy Hale analyze the impact that the US State Department’s accusation of “significant corruption” by Paraguayan vice president and (now former) presidential candidate Hugo Velázquez could have on the country’s elections next year.

Peru

• The Napo-Tigre reserve, home of indigenous communities in Peru, is a proposed drilling site for Anglo-French company Perenco, who filed an injunction “for the repeal of a law offering preliminary government recognition” to the territory, says The Guardian.
  
  
• The leader of a failed 2005 ethnic nationalist uprising, Antauro Humala, was released from prison after having served his sentence for the rebellion, reports Reuters. Humala is the brother of former President Ollanta Humala, who “repeatedly refused to pardon his brother.” 

Venezuela 

• “A U.S. court upheld a tribunal’s $8.75 billion award to U.S. oil producer ConocoPhillips over the expropriation of its Venezuelan oil assets,” with the Maduro government rejecting the ruling and promising to “continue to take legal action to ‘preserve its patrimony,’” reports Reuters.

Arianna Kohan y Jordi Amaral / Latin America Daily Briefing
http://latinamericadailybriefing.blogspot